Matthew Conto

Killing the D-Pad for VR

Tandon Vision was created for Google Cardboard due to the incredible accessibility of VR experiences in Cardboard. Because Cardboard experiences don’t demand, and can’t create, the kind of high fidelity experiences of more expensive headsets, it allows a kind of low-fidelty yet immersive experience. The lack of cables tethering the phone mean that the user can turn in any direction. Because the cardboard only has one button, interfaces need to be primarily gaze controlled and more complex experiences need smarter interfaces capable of interpreting what users want.

For the robot driving sequence, I ended up testing several solutions. The first idea was a first-person control scheme where you would see from a robot’s onboard camera. Any time you turned your head, the robot would turn too. To move forward, you would hold down the button. Trying it out, it started falling apart where users couldn’t see where they were going and would be very prone to motion sickness.

The important change was switching from a 1:1 control scheme to a waypoint and route scheme with the Unity Nav-Mesh. Instead of the user piloting the robot’s every action, they would gaze and click to set their desired destination. The camera would follow from a 3rd person perspective, but would never turn on its own, so the player’s physical sense of 3D space while wearing the headset could be partially saved.

To let players know where they were going, I added a simple compass to the UI that would point to their next destination. In addition, I used the unique aspect of Unity UI canvases that they’re not affected by lighting or fog so they’re visible from great ranges. Though it removes some of the exploration, it means no one has to aimlessly wander the sands looking for magical soil samples.

For future virtual reality projects, I really want to move away from d-pad style controls with WASD keys or thumbsticks. Room-scale, like with the Vive or by using the Kinect are really fascinating and tricking the body’s sense of movement is an open frontier for experimentation.